Album: Homesafe – One

The new album from Homesafe, called One and out June 29 on Pure Noise Records, is a stirring exploration of the human condition that is memorable and unique. The fresh rock music is inviting and accessible; it’s something that’s open to anyone who wants to come participate in its experience. It really links up with the listener well.

The album is the type that solidifies for you that it’s top of the line after listening for a bit. It doesn’t steamroll you. Rather, it works its way up to lingering with you, begging to be played repeatedly whether or not the listener listens to this type of music normally. If you definitely don’t listen to this type of music often, this album could easily hit the spot for you anyway — One is that high quality.

The album has an at times subtle but at other times passionate energy to it. While being pointed and even contemplative at times, it’s honestly a jam. The album doesn’t get too pretentious or moody to the point of detracting from the music itself. The band even does a very effective job incorporating a sociopolitical concern into their music, proclaiming “fuck racism” at one point on the album. The sentiment is blunt, yes, but it gets the job done, and they don’t spend too much time stuck on it, instead moving on and letting it fit into the broader, dynamic picture that they’re sharing with their music.

Musically, the album definitely has some character. Although yes, the band easily gets memorably passionate, there is a slower pace on songs like “Stay Away” that contributes as much to what the band is trying to get across as the faster songs do.On another note, with tracks like “Vanilla-Scented Laser Beams,” the band goes a welcome extra mile to ensure that they’re memorable. Overall, their album is dynamic enough that they don’t “need” the catchy word pictures on the song, but even still, it fits great and only makes the album that much better.“Time Ain’t Free” is a gently touching song that you might want to put on repeat if you’re the romantic type. The whole album has a bit of a realistic, moving romantic feel to it, but that’s not to say it’s got a one track mind. Rather, the romance reached for is the broad attachment to life that interweaves itself with our existence here. In no respects, “romantic” or otherwise, is One ever over the top — instead, it sits perfectly in between available extremes like few other albums do.